Author: darkhavensTitle: Missing You, #1 - Grief and Parting GiftsFandom: Pairing: Buffy: Spike/XanderRating: PG-13 for languageWords: 2x100Spoilers: You know how Buffy ended, right?Concrit: Please. If you spot a typo, please feel free to tell me in comments.Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. No harm, no foul, no money made.Warnings/Squicks: Deathfic, kinda, only Spike comes back from the dead eventually. :DSummary: Xander misses more than he expected to after the loss of Sunnydale.Notes:Written for stagesoflove prompt set #11 - Five ways to say "I miss you" (writer's choice)

Grief and Parting Gifts

When they finally found a motel that could take them all, the girls grabbed their bags from the luggage space and staggered inside in almost silent clumps of two and three.

Xander stood back and let them scuffle amongst themselves, content to retrieve his stuff once they were gone.

He wasn't expecting to find two bags - the one he vaguely remembered packing, between miniature panic attacks, and the one that had disappeared somewhere around the last time Spike had been under his roof.

The ache in his chest was unexpected. Sure, he was grieving for Anya, but… Spike? Apparently so.

~

Harris.

I'd say I'm sorry for nicking your bag, but we both know I'd be lying.

I knew you'd get it back anyway, especially after I got a look at that shiny bauble the wanker delivered. A flash piece of kit like that always carries a hefty price tag, and it was my turn to pay the piper.

But enough of this maudlin shite; what's done's done.

I don't have much to show for over a hundred years of hellraising existence, but what I have is yours. If nothing else it's got to be worth more than those stupid bloody plates.